Heretofore, in order to achieve a patterned effect, in particular with certain materials, it has been conventional to work with pattern guide bars which are steered in the traverse direction with pattern chains and which are equipped with guides to guide the pattern threads. These machines are rather limited in the type of pattern which they can achieve since the sidewards path available to the guide bars is rather limited. Further, it is rather difficult to work with one pattern repeat since this requires the use of a very long pattern chain.
In order to avoid the foregoing problems, it has been conventional to utilize machines equipped with a jacquard arrangement. In such equipment in place of using guide bars with individual thread guides, there is utilized a jacquard bar which operates together with displacement droppers whereby each needle works with one or more pattern threads. The patterning is achieved in that the jacquard pattern thread is moved from one needle to another depending on whether the pattern effect or the basic motif of the ware should appear on the one hand and is worked with the ground stitches when the motif is not to be apparent.
The disadvantage of this type of equipment is that it is necessary to provide as many pattern threads as there are needles in the machine and that a plurality of pattern threads must be worked into the ground stitches. The over-all effect thereof is that the ground stitches, which carry no pattern are in fact heavier than necessary. The contrast between the ground stitches and the pattern effect is substantially more undesirable in this particular type of operation than in the equipment of the first type mentioned herein above.